Family-Based Immigration

Our firm is seasoned in filing family-based immigration petitions and preparing you for the interview. For a US Citizen’s immediate family (spouses, unmarried children under 21 years old, and parents if the Citizen is 21 years or older), we file the immigrant petition, adjustment of status, application for work authorization, and application for advanced parole all at the same time. We subsequently closely track your case for you.

We understand that it is important for family members to seek authorized work as soon as possible. USCIS should adjudicate your work permit within 90 days of the date on your receipt letter, but they do not always do that. In the event of a delay, we will follow up with USCIS to make sure that they are still working on a decision.

Visa Bulletin

Other family-sponsored petitions follow the visa bulletin to determine when the beneficiaries would be eligible to adjust status.

Here are the other relatives that US Citizens and Legal Permanent Residents may sponsor in order of preferences:

First: (F1) Unmarried Sons and Daughters of U.S. Citizens: 23,400 plus any numbers not required for fourth preference.

Second: Spouses and Children, and Unmarried Sons and Daughters of Permanent Residents: 114,200, plus the number (if any) by which the worldwide family preference level exceeds 226,000, plus any unused first preference numbers:

(F2A) Spouses and Children of Permanent Residents: 77% of the overall second preference limitation, of which 75% are exempt from the per-country limit;

(F2B) Unmarried Sons and Daughters (21 years of age or older) of Permanent Residents: 23% of the overall second preference limitation.

Third: (F3) Married Sons and Daughters of U.S. Citizens: 23,400, plus any numbers not required by first and second preferences.

Fourth: (F4) Brothers and Sisters of Adult U.S. Citizens: 65,000, plus any numbers not required by first three preferences.

We will help you match the correct category, determine whether USCIS is using the “Final Action Date or “Dates for Filing Applications” to determine whether your priority date is current. Most of the time, they use the Final Action Dates, which is after the Dates for Filing Applications to determine when you can file for your adjustment. If your priority date is before the date listed for the corresponding category and the corresponding country of chargeability, then you may file. Sometimes, USCIS may announce that you can determine your priority date based on the Dates for Filing Applications, which is well before the Final Action Date, this means that you get a chance to file your petition well before USCIS can approve it. This is beneficial because you will get your work authorization card and your travel documents sooner.

All this may sound overwhelming, but that is why we are here, we track the dates for you. We determine which date USCIS wants us to use and when to file your adjustment of status. Once we enter your case into our client management system, there is a tracker that will alert us once your priority date is current and we work on filing your adjustment of status right away.

If you believe that you or your family member is inadmissible due to criminal, fraud, health-related reasons or that they are subject to the 3-year or 10-year bar, they may qualify for the I-601A provisional unlawful presence waiver, which allows them to wait in the U.S. for their interview at the consulate, or the I-601 waiver. Schedule a consultation with our office to see if you qualify.